Podcasts for Black History Month 🎙️

February is Black History Month in the U.S. We're celebrating with these podcast recommendations

Podcast artwork for Black Healing Remixed, Therapy for Black Girls, Hope & Hard Pills, FANTI, and Vibe Check

Curator:

👉🏽 Yolo Akili Robinson (he/him) and Natalie Patterson (she/her)

Why this theme?

👉🏽 To explore Black history, we turn to stories from today and how they reflect things experienced in our past. These are stories that touch on mental healthcare, prison abolition, religion, and pride celebrations. If we understand where we’ve been, we can recognize what’s happening in our present, and consider what we want for our future.

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Podcast Picks

Black Healing Remixed podcast cover art

Antonia Hylton, an Emmy and Peabody award-winning author, unpacks the troubling history of Crownsville State Hospital and its reflection on modern mental health and prison systems.

This eye-opening conversation sets the tone for Black History Month, exploring the legacy of systemic injustice while celebrating the resilience and reimagining of Black healing.

Therapy For Black Girls podcast cover art

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde, a pastoral counselor and author, who shares her journey of becoming a practicing Buddhist.

This conversation explores some of the basic principles of Buddhism, how Buddhism as a philosophy can inform our practice of other religions, and the significance of mindfulness activities such as yoga and meditation within Buddhism.

Hope & Hard Pills podcast cover art

In this episode, Dr. Chanda Reynolds, who recently obtained her doctorate degree in clinical psychology, discusses the impact of transgenerational trauma on the Black community, the integration of faith and mental health, and mental health within the Black church.

FANTI podcast cover art

Dr. Charles H.F. Davis III discusses prison abolition, the beginnings of its movement, and specifically how it differs from the idea of prison reform. They also discuss how proactivity in the prevention of crime is more beneficial than punishment after the fact.

Vibe Check podcast cover art

In this episode Sam, Saeed, and Zach talk about pride month – the protests, the parties, and the corporations.

They discuss what have they experienced over the years, how pride celebrations feel now, and how they hope things change to become more authentic.

Sponsored

Join award-winning expert Professor Jerry Brotton, as each episode he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart — and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it.

For a fully immersive experience, visit Oculi-Mundi.com/podcast to explore each of the maps as you listen.

Community

😱Sparks is a new six-part horror podcast told in a late-night confessional style.

🌿Raising GenV is the go-to podcast for parents exploring plant-based living and mindful parenting.

💖In Podcast The Newsletter, Lauren Passell recommends Why Is Amy In the Bath? She writes: “Brandon and Gabby went through 1,500 movies, including all the Best Actress Oscar nominees, to see if there was a correlation to tubs and the data has shaped the series.”

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Podcast news from Podnews

  • In 2020, podcasting in Türkiye grew faster than anywhere else on Earth. Now, the industry is part of a US $31mn digital audio ad market — and it’s only set to grow further. Rıfat Özcan writes for Podnews, looking at the rapidly evolving Turkish podcasting ecosystem.

  • What’s going on with podcasts in French Canada? Signal Hill Insights explains what’s up, using an analogy from McDonald’s.

  • The NZ Podcasting Summit is to return for 2025. The event, in Auckland’s AUT, will include speakers from across Aotearoa, networking opportunities, and “a group effort to record as many hosts and guests as possible on a single podcast episode”. Tickets are available now.

Spotlight

LA Made: The Other Moonshot podcast cover art

LA Made is a series exploring stories of bold Californian innovators and how they forever changed the lives of millions all over the world.

Season 3, The Other Moonshot, tells the story of three Black aerospace engineers in Los Angeles who played a crucial role in America’s race to space, amid the civil unrest of the 1960s. When Joanne Higgins was growing up in Compton, she heard her godfather, Charlie Cheathem, tell stories about his key role in the Apollo mission to the moon.

As an adult, she realized that his experiences — and those of other Black engineers — had been left out of the history books. She set out to record for the first time the accounts of these men, now in their 90s, whose crucial contributions to the early days of the Apollo mission have been overlooked — or taken credit for by others — despite their ingenuity and determination. 

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